Dear Friends,
If you’ve been to Messolonghi in the 21st century, you’ve probably spent time in the Byron Research Center that occupies the top-floor space of the lagoonside replica of the Kapsalis house where Byron spent his last months. The Messolonghi Byron Society now needs our help to take advantage of a marvelous, timely opportunity for expanding the Byron Research Center.
The city’s recent offer of the 220-square-meter second floor of Byron House will now allow the center to expand to include a Byron Museum. Rosa Florou’s hope and plan is to have the space ready for an inaugural event in May 2021, when the bicentennial of the start of the Greek War of Independence will be celebrated in Athens, Messolonghi, and throughout Greece. Besides playing a role in hosting this national event, Messolonghi has been designated the site of the upcoming International Byron Conference of 2024, a scholarly commemoration of the bicentennial of Byron’s death. In the times between and beyond, the museum will complement the library as a place for education at all levels, conferences and public lectures of diverse sorts, and research projects of Byronists, Romanticists, and Philhellenists. As is the case at the Byron Collection at Drew University, Messolonghi’s Byron Museum will offer space for important material objects to complement the scholarly resources housed in the library just upstairs.
The Byron Museum will hold many treasures, from Byronic memorabilia, facsimile manuscripts, and first editions to revolutionary relics from the National Historical Museum in Athens. But the work of repair and renovation to the second floor and the addition of the systems and structures necessary for a museum space will be both extensive and costly after years of heavy municipal use and weather-related degradation. It will be necessary to replace or restore 7 doors and 22 windows with their wooden storm shutters, to refinish and repair walls, the floor, the ceiling, and the staircase. A security system featuring surveillance cameras and a burglar alarm, air conditioning, smoke detectors, and a sprinkler system will all need to be installed. Exhibition-quality shelves and cases will need to be built, and furnishings purchased. The budget will also include developmental funding for interactive digital materials that will be available free of charge to students at all levels, from primary schools upward. The total cost of this ambitious project will be 60,000 euros.
And it’s a cost that will not be publicly funded. The city’s offer specifies that the costs of renovation will be entirely the Messolonghi Byron Society’s responsibility, though for its part the municipality pledges to refresh the ground floor and make needed repairs and improvements to the restrooms located in the building’s basement.
Rosa and the Messolonghi Byron Society take seriously their role in establishing and maintaining a library and museum space worthy of Byron and Philhellenism in their city sacred to the Greek Revolution and known worldwide as the place Byron died after devoting the final months of his life to the cause of freedom. They’re determined to create a beautiful, efficient, and hospitable new space on the second floor of Byron House, a fitting repository for the texts and treasures entrusted to them and a welcoming environment for visitors from around the world. For the museum to be ready for the May 2021 inauguration, the work must begin now, in advance of funding.
Fully recognizing that there are many pressing claims on individuals and their resources at this strange time, I nonetheless ask that you also think of sending whatever you can to help the Messolonghi Byron Society fund the museum. Contributions sent to payable to BSA earmarked for the Byron Museum renovation project should be tax deductible as direct contributions to the MBS would not.
Rosa and her fellow Byronists would be most grateful for our tangible expression of support for their admirable, important project. Their plan is to acknowledge the generosity of individual contributors by inscribing their names on a wall of donors in the Byron Museum.
ευχαριστώ πολύ για τη γενναιοδωρία σας, or in English, thanks very much for your generosity,
Peter Graham
Vice President, Byron Society of America
Director of International Relations, Messolonghi Byron Research Center
You can also donate by sending a check made out to “THE BYRON SOCIETY OF AMERICA” (with “Byron Research Center” in the memo) here:
Professor Andrew Stauffer
Byron Society of America
Department of English
University of Virginia
219 Bryan Hall
PO Box 400121
Charlottesville, VA 22904